


Reft

by mithrel



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Blanket Permission, Episode: s03e01 Children of Earth - Day 1, Episode: s03e02 Children of Earth - Day 2, M/M, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-27
Updated: 2009-07-26
Packaged: 2017-10-30 02:04:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/326563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The events of Day One and Two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'll Come Back

He stares at the screen in shock. A bomb. A bomb in his _stomach!_

He’s pushing Gwen out the door, disregarding her protests, as Ianto calls out “Blast radius one mile.”

Gwen’s clawing at him, desperate. “I’m telling you, get out!”

“Blast in two minutes.”

“I can’t just run, Jack!”

She has to. She’s part of his team, his responsibility. He’s lost too many people already.

“You’re pregnant!”

That snaps her out of it, and she runs, heading for the stairs.

The lockdown procedure was initiated when the alert was registered. Ianto’s at one of the terminals, typing frantically.

“Ianto, you’re gonna get locked inside!” _I can’t lose him. I’m going to lose him anyway, but not like this._ He hadn’t wanted to be seen as “a couple,” because that implied commitment. Not that he isn’t willing to give it, but “til death do us part” is all too real for him.

“Ianto and you!” he snarls, wrestling him away from it.

“There must be a way to override the mechanism!”

“For God’s sake, get out!”

“There’ll be nothing left of you!” Ianto screams.

“I can survive anything!” Jack retorts as he pushes him onto the lift, not believing it, feeling mortal, the fear of death cold on his neck, for the first time in centuries.

He’s never said “I love you,” and he doesn’t say it now, just pulls Ianto into a kiss, hard and desperate, the last act of a dying man, then pulls back.

As the lift ascends, he promises, “I’ll come back. I always do.”

He watches as Ianto gets smaller and smaller, praying to a God he doesn’t believe in that the lift will make it, that he’ll reach street level and _get away_ in time.

His eyes fall onto the countdown.

Four seconds.

Three.

He closes his eyes.


	2. I'll Come Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ianto looks out for Jack.

He stares at the cement trucks entombing Jack in cement, helpless to do anything.

He’d watched them pull the remains from the ruined building and put them in a body bag. He’d followed them here, hoping, somehow, that Jack had survived.

Now he knows he had, or why would they be bothering with cement? But he can’t get him out.

 _He’s been buried alive before,_ Ianto thinks. _But not in concrete,_ another part of him whispers. _It’s a miracle he survived at all._ Both parts of him agree on that.

Ianto starts planning.

***

Later, when he’s picked up Gwen and Rhys, and they’re parked at the side of a cliff, he moves the forklift carrying the cement block out over empty air.

They have to go. They’re being pursued. But still, he hesitates.

After all the years (centuries) that Jack has lived, all the things he’s survived–gunshots, falls, even Abaddon–he’s not going to be hurt by a little drop like this.

 _I’m sorry._ He releases the block.


End file.
